In a previous study, Peptoniphilus mikwangii was isolated from the human oral cavity as a new species. The purpose of this study was to develop P. mikwangii-specific PCR primers. The PCR primers were designed, based on the nucleotide sequence of 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rDNA). The specificity of the primers was tested using genomic DNAs of 3 strains of P. mikwangii and 27 strains (27 species) of non-P. mikwangii bacteria. The sensitivity of primers sensitivity was determined using PCR, with serial dilutions of the purified genomic DNAs (4 ng to 4 fg) of P. mikwangii KCOM 1628T. The data showed that P. mikwangii-specific qPCR primers (B134-F11/B134-R1 & B134-F5/B134-R5) could detect only P. mikwangii strains, and 400 fg or 40 fg of P. mikwangii genome DNA. These results suggest that PCR primers are useful in detecting P. mikwangii from the oral cavity.

• Soon-Nang Park(Korean Collection for Oral Microbiology and Department of Oral Biochemistry, School of Dentistry, Chosun University, 309 Pilmun-daero, Dong-Gu, Gwangju 61452, Republic of Korea)
• Junhyeok Lee(Farragut High School, 11237 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37934, USA)
• Joong-Ki Kook(Korean Collection for Oral Microbiology and Department of Oral Biochemistry, School of Dentistry, Chosun University, 309 Pilmun-daero, Dong-Gu, Gwangju 61452, Republic of Korea) Corresponding author